The National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (NPC & CPPCC) this year have seen a wave of disappearances of petitioners across the country. Local governments, in an attempt to show zero petitioning accomplishments, have employed extreme measures to prevent petitioners from reaching government offices in the capital. These measures include interception, abduction, forcing petitioners to sign commitment letters, issuing inter-provincial warnings, breaking into homes, and various other tactics to maintain stability and control.
According to a petitioner named Qi Qi, in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, individuals are detained upon purchasing train tickets. On March 2nd, she was summoned by the police to the local police station to sign a commitment letter not to visit Tiananmen Square, Zhongnanhai, embassies and consulates in China, residences of national leaders, important meetings and events. Qi Qi refused to comply, stating that it is an abuse of power to oppress the people.
On the same day, Sun Airong and her son from Zaozhuang, Shandong, who reside in Beijing, were threatened by stability maintenance personnel and have since gone missing. Sun had reached out to a petitioner known as “Red Sister” for help before disappearing. The night before they vanished, there were repeated knocks on their door and calls from local government officials, followed by a cut-off of electricity in their residence. Stability maintenance personnel attempted to enter their home through the window, and they have been unreachable ever since.
In Qingdao, Shandong, petitioners Li Yanxiang and her husband Li Hongcai were restricted in their movements by three unlawful officials from the local government, prompting them to seek help online.
Tang Zhaoxing, a petitioner from Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, was surrounded by dozens of stability maintenance personnel from Cangshan District in Beijing on March 1st. By 9 a.m., she was taken away from Beijing and attempts to contact her by local petitioners later in the afternoon went unanswered.
Petitioners Liu Chengbi and Chen Dashu from Chongqing have been kidnapped by a criminal gang dispatched from Chongqing near the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing and remain missing. Additionally, petitioner Liu Guangfen from Banan District is also missing in Beijing.
On February 28th, petitioner Sun Jinxiu from Gansu was detained by interceptors after visiting a friend during the Spring Festival. She was taken to the police station for over an hour before being led to the mountains in Wushan County by a local armed official named Leiyang, where she was controlled in a vehicle until midnight.
Sun lamented, “I have a 90-year-old sick mother at home who needs care. The lawlessness and oppression in Wushan County have reached a critical point.”
To her dismay, surveillance cameras were installed facing her home by the Wushan County government on February 25th, monitoring her residence 24/7. Sun expressed her frustration, stating, “I have been tending to my sick mother at home, living a hard life, and suddenly, I am being deprived of a normal life. They are trying to force me to petition, to seek redress?”
In order to escape the persecution from authorities, some elderly petitioners in Shanghai fled before the Chinese New Year. Seventy-year-old petitioner Liu Dongbao from Jing’an District fled to Ankang County in Shaanxi, the hometown of his wife, to avoid stability maintenance personnel. On February 27th, four personnel and two police officers from Liu’s household registration district, along with two local police officers, found them in Ankang County, registered their information, and prohibited them from going to Beijing.
Liu recounted his experience of being detained for 92 days in a black prison by stability maintenance personnel during the September 3rd military parade and Fourth Plenum and the subsequent physical abuse he suffered. As a result, he has ongoing mobility issues that prevent him from walking. He and his wife were forced to escape to Shaanxi.
Another petitioner, Lu Fuzhong from Hongkou District in Shanghai, visited Hongsi Village on February 26th to file a complaint against the Shanghai court and criminal gangs engaging in illicit activities and distorting legal judgments. He was abducted by authorities upon his return and has been out of contact since noon on February 27th, leaving his family in distress.
Wang Ruyun, a petitioner from Hongkou District, Shanghai, has also gone missing. His family has sought assistance from other petitioners and remains extremely worried.
Petitioner Li Haihai stated, “Interception and illegal surveillance are essentially acts of organized crime. I believe that such actions should be restricted, and those involved should be held legally accountable. Safeguarding rights is a lawful act, and any obstruction of these rights and protection of the infringers is corrupt behavior that should be legally prosecuted.”